Despite some very harsh and punitive drug laws, Americans
are the world's biggest drug experimenters.

A new study by the World Health Organization indicates that the
severity of the drug laws have little influence over experimentation rates, and
rather it is the affluence of the country that seems most determining of drug
use rates.

In the US,
a world leading 16% have at some point tried cocaine. The second most prevalent
rate of use is seen in New
Zealand, where just over 4% have tried the drug.

Again leading the world, 42% of Americans have tried
marijuana, followed again by NZ at 41%. The Netherlands, with its famously
decriminalized marijuana regulations had a far lower experimentation rate.

74% of Americans have smoked tobacco – another world leading
rate. Lebanon,
at number 2, saw 61% having ever smoked.

Dr. Louisa Degenhardt, a spokesperson for the team explained
their findings as, "Globally, drug use is not distributed evenly and is
not simply related to drug policy, since countries with stringent user-level
illegal drug policies did not have lower levels of use than countries with
liberal ones."